Transcultural Experiments: Russian And American Models Of Creative Communication

Transcultural Experiments: Russian And American Models Of Creative Communication

Product Description Contemporary processes of globalization have led to radical new modes of cultural interaction, forms not easily understandable in terms of traditional models of discrete national or ethnic cultures. Transcultural Experiments develops new scholarly and creative strategies out of this intersection of cultural traditions in Russia and the United States. Ellen E. Berry and Mikhail N. Epstein define and enact a transcultural method as an alternative to the legacies of cultural divisions and hegemony that have dominated both Western and Second Worlds. The book introduces a system of original concepts and genres of writing: transculture (vs. multiculturalism), interference (vs. difference), potentiation (vs. deconstruction), inteLnet (vs. internet), ethics of imagination, hyperauthorship, and collective improvisation. The authors make a revolutionary argument in cultural studies that will be of profound interest to anyone concerned with finding new modes of creativity in the humanities, interdisciplinary thinking, and intercultural communication between the former First and Second Worlds. Review Ellen Berry and Mikhal Epstein have joined forces to produce an exciting blend of Russian culturology and American cultural studies that dares the reader to imagine a society in which identities are fluid, boundaries are penetrable, differences are productive, and cultural improvisations are incorporated into the decision-making process. Dmitri Shanlin, University of NevadaOne is grateful for having this book; it is a treasure trove of ideas, discoveries, and inspiration for further thought. Victor Terras, Brown University About the Author Ellen E. Berry is Associate Professor of English and Co-Chair of the English Department at Bowling Green State University. Mikhail N. Epstein is S. C. Dobbs Professor of Cultural Theory and Russian Literature at Emory University, USA, and Professor of Russian and Cultural Theory at Durham University, UK.His research interests include cultural and literary theory, the history of Russian literature and philosophy, Western and Russian postmodernism, semiotics and linguistics, and new methods and interdisciplinary approaches in the humanities. He is especially interested in the practical extensions and applications of the humanities and their creative contributions into the areas of their study.Mikhail Epstein is the author of 20 books and more than 600 articles and essays, many of which are translated into 17 languages. His booksinclude After the Future: The Paradoxes of Postmodernism and Contemporary Russian Culture (1995), Transcultural Experiments: Russian and American Models of Creative Communication (with E. Berry, 1999), Cries in the New Wilderness (2002) and those published in Russian: The Philosophy of the Possible (2001), Mapping Blank Spaces: On the Future of the Humanities (2004),Word and Silence: Metaphysics of Russian Literature (2006) and Solo Amore: Love in Five Dimensions (2011). Professor Epstein has won national and international awards, including The Andrei Bely Prize (S.-Petersburg, 1991); The Social Innovations Award 1995 from the Institute for Social Inventions (London); the International Essay Contest set up by Lettre International and Weimar - Cultural City of Europe, 1999; and The Liberty Prize, awarded for the outstanding contribution to the development of Russian - U.S. cultural relations (New York, 2000).